Orionese

by verdemama on October 12, 2010

Whoops! I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I’ve posted. In my head I’ve been busy writing blog posts these past six days, but in reality my fingers haven’t typed a word. Seems like life keeps getting in the way of blogging. I don’t know how some of these moms do it, juggling kids, husbands, multiple websites, day jobs, etc. I’m definitely not a Type-A person and some nights I’d rather plant my rear on the couch and make out with my DVR than blog, sooo… I guess you’ll just have to deal with that. Love me as I am—a sporadic, sometimes-ambitious, sometimes-lazy blogger.

Anyhoo. We’ve been enjoying being back home in beautiful California. I’ve always loved traveling to Europe (or any country/continent, for that matter), but I’m always even happier coming home. Seeing different parts of the world and how other people live makes me so grateful for my own little spot on this ball o’ clay. There are 101 reasons why traveling is awesome. It expands our hearts and minds in ways I can’t quite put my finger on.

For example, since we’ve been home, Orion has been talking up a storm. He’s always been a little babbling jabberwocky, but now he’s stringing multiple words together, his pronunciation is greatly improving, and he repeats, like, everything I say. (Note to self: watch what you say.)

We think maybe Orion was an African Bushman in a past life because of some of the hilariously bizarro sounds he makes. He can’t make the “k” sound yet, so instead he clicks his tongue. Instead of saying “truck,” he says, “truh-(tongue click)” or instead of “snack,” he says, “snah-(tongue click). He also calls his sippy cup (or even a glass of water) “baba-(lip pop),” which is weird considering he never used bottles and we don’t call his sippy cup a bottle either. He may just be trying to say “water” and it’s coming out “baba-(lip pop).” I have no idea why he adds the pop sound at the end, but we think it’s quite entertaining.

He also has a few made-up words that he uses all the time. Cars and trucks are called daddos. At first I thought he was calling Erik daddo, because he said daddo every time Erik pulled into the driveway at the end of his workday. But soon enough I realized any ol’ car or truck was a daddo. Now we ride in the daddo, play with daddos and see daddos everywhere we go. It’s a daddo world and we’re just along for the ride.

When we were in Prague, we rode the didoo, i.e. the train. I’m assuming this word evolved from a combination of daddo and the “choo choo” sound some trains make. (Although the Prague subway was decidedly choo choo-less.)

I love that he’s able to tell me what he wants now. He asks for his baba-(lip pop) when he’s thirsty and asks, “Nurse nigh nigh?” before bed, among other things.

I’m so excited for all the sure-to-be-enthralling stories he’ll have to tell us in the coming months and years, but it’s also a little bittersweet to watch him sprouting into a kid right before my eyes.